Australia is reeling from its worst mass shooting in 30 years
On Sunday, a father and son pair opened fire on a Jewish festival
marking the start of Hanukkah on a beach in Sydney. They killed at least 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, and injured 40 more
Police there are still trying to figure out what drove the shootings, though authorities are saying the plot was clearly designed to sow terror among the nation's Jews
France 24's Iris Mackler is covering the story for us from Sydney. She joins me now from there
Iris, what's the latest you're hearing today? What we've seen today is I think the entire Australian community in shock, literally reeling
People have said to me, people have said to me, and I've heard politicians saying, this is un-Australian
Australia is not a place that has many mass shootings and certainly not at Bondi Beach, that icon of Sydney
maybe even the most famous beach in Australia, that says something to Australians about themselves
It's an international icon known all over the world. And that people, beachgoers, could be running in terror
That other people could be being picked off by two shooters like fish in a barrel
That children were the target. That dogs were running around not knowing what to do
It just is a complete shock to the Australian population And that why we seen so many people coming forward leaving flowers masses of flowers commemorations some spontaneous It the second night of Hanukkah
the Jewish festival that was being celebrated last night. People have been coming there to say
Jewish prayers as well, to leave their flowers. Politicians, including Australia's Prime Minister
have been coming. There have also been questions being asked about how it is that there were six
guns between these two shooters, that the father had a license apparently for these six guns. They
were legally held, even though the son, we are now hearing, had a history with Australia's
Domestic Intelligence Service, ASIO, saying that it did have a watch on him six years ago because
of connections that he did have to Islamic State, to a terror cell here. They then decided he wasn't
a major risk. Nevertheless, these questions being asked and some suggestion that now we are going to
see a change in Australia's gun laws to make it harder for people to access. Australians do not
have access to automatic weapons any longer after the mass shooting 30 years ago, but tightening up
further Australia's gun laws. So given that era, what would that tightening up of gun laws look like exactly How much farther can they go They can go further because they were loosened You know Australia ever since the shooting in 1996
when Australia had a buyback of weapons, it was a determined political act
that such a thing would not happen again. Australians have been very proud of that
We, when we look across at the US and we see what happens with gun laws there
we pat ourselves on the back. But the reality is there are now, I have read
more guns floating around in Australian society than there were back in 1996
They are not automatic weapons. But nevertheless, as we've seen over the past 24 hours
they can cause damage because, you know, they can be loaded quickly
And Australia is now going to make a move to pull back from that and to revert to a much tougher
a much tougher policy on guns. For example, the father of the two shooters
he had a license for a hunting, he had a hunter's license to have these six guns
when he lived in the city and didn't hunt at all until he came hunting for humans
So that kind of loophole to be tightened. And Iris, many people around the world
who are following these developments over the day Sunday have seen the video of a man who actually rushed in
and ripped one of those guns from the hands of one of the alleged attackers What more do we know about this man who now being hailed as a hero around the world He is He is definitely a hero He was unarmed and he went and disarmed a man who was there on
this terrible mission. So yes, he is a hero. His name is Ahmed Al-Ahmed, and he is like the two
shooters. He is a migrant. And I think in addition to his incredible heroism and the fact that it was
all captured on video, the entire sequence. So everybody has been able to see it. In addition to
that, he's a migrant from Syria. He came in 2006. He's a former member of the Syrian police, which
is, I think, why he was, you know, you could see he was trained to disarm someone. And he was there
just having a cup of coffee. And he remembered his training. He got up and he did that. And the fact
that there's a great migrant story at the same time as there's a terrible migrant story is very, very reassuring
to Australians. You know, they have set up a crowdfunding campaign for him
and an American billionaire has contributed $100,000. It's already exceeded the amount that was set its goal
and that's because he is now in hospital, having been shot so many times, politicians visiting him too
and he will need help. and Australians and people all around the world are showing that they think he deserves it